Full disclosure: Crystal Soldier is not the first book in the Liaden Universe®, mostly because, err, it takes place in a Whole ‘Nother Universe — a universe that is not only at war, but is losing the war.

It is the first book of a duology (the second book, despite Sharon’s insistence that she would not, no never, title a book Crystal Dragon, is — Crystal Dragon), which can be read independent of the Liaden Universe® novels.

Soldier was published in 2004 by Meisha Merlin, as a single title; Baen returned it to print as part of the omnibus edition The Crystal Variation, including Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, and Balance of Trade, available everywhere. Or it can be purchased as an ebook from Baen ebooks, and Amazon.

A detail we have neglected to mention in our previous First Chapter...

It’s Friday again, and you know what that means, right? Right! Time for another free first chapter to whet your appetite for more. This week, we decided to bring you the first chapter — the very first chapter EVER, written in 1984, for the book titled Agent of Change, published in 1988 by Del Rey, as a paperback original

Once again — if you like this chapter and want to know what happens next, the whole book is available for free from the Baen Free Library, from Amazon, Kobo and the rest of the Usual Suspects.

If you like Agent, you have many more books ahead of you. Here’s a list to get you started.

Chapter One
Standard Year 1392

So, there’s a new thing we’re taking part in, called First Chapter Friday, in which authors post the first chapter of one of their novels in a Clever Plot to get readers interested enough to buy the rest of the book.

Steve and I decided to post the first chapter of Fledgling as our first First Chapter Friday offering, for two reasons.

Reason ONE: If a reader is sufficiently captivated by this chapter and wishes to go on, they may do so immediately (so long as they don’t mind reading an ebook), and for free, by going to Amazon, or Baen eBooks, or any other of the Usual Suspects, and downloading it for free. As in, for free.

Reason TWO: Fledgling is the first book in the Theo Waitley story arc contained within the Liaden Universe®. That means, if a reader likes Fledgling and wants to ...

Asyouknowbob, The Gathering Edge, twentieth novel in the Liaden Universe®, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, owner-operators, will be released in hardcover on May 2. Naturally, we’re very excited (it’s not true what they tell you that, when you’re an Old and Sober Author you won’t get excited when a new book comes out). In fact, we’re so excited, we want to share some of that energy around.

So! We’re inviting you all — yes, you, too! — to a pre-release party A(sk) M(e) A(nything) on Reddit, Monday, May 1, at 12 noon Eastern.

You don’t need a Reddit account to hang out and read the questions and answers, but you will need an account if you want to participate in the AMA. If you want to get an account now, just, yanno, in case,just go here; it doesn’t cost a thing and it’s quick and easy ...

Neogenesis, the twenty-first novel in the Liaden Universe®, created Some Time Back by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, will be published in January 2018.

Here’s the blurb:

Menace from Back Space Looming out of the Dust of Time

The Complex Logic Laws were the result of a war waged hundreds of years in the past, when two human powers threw massive AI navies at each other and nearly annihilated themselves. Being human, they blamed their tools for this near miss; destroyed what was left of the sentient ships, and made it illegal to be, manufacture, or shelter an independent logic.

Strangely, however, the Free Ships and other AIs did not turn themselves in or suicide, they merely became wary of humans, and stayed under their scans...

Change Management: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 23, has been uploaded and is publishing (in the case of Amazon, has published) to Amazon, Baen ebooks, BN/Nook, Kobo, iBooks, 24Symbols, Page Foundry, Scribd, and Tolino, so expect to be able to purchase it from those vendors within the next 72 hours or so.

Here’s the blurb for the book:

Times are perilous, violence rife, and the future uncertain. Success and the survival of all you hold dear may hinge on how you manage change.

Some people advise that we “Embrace Change!” Other people realize that change has edges, and if you embrace it the wrong way, it may feel a lot more like a knife than a bromide when it touches your guts.

Here are two Lee and Miller stories set in the Liaden Universe®, “Street Cred,” original to thi...

If you’ve read the eArc of The Gathering Edge, and you want to talk about it, there is a spoiler discussion topic on sharonleewriter. This a moderated venue, so it will take some time for your comment to appear. Do Not Despair if it does not show up immediately. All will be well in the fullness of time.